John Feal, founder of the FealGood Foundation, is an Army veteran and a 9/11 first responder. He’s been on the front lines of the fight to provide health care for sick 9/11 workers. Joined with Marine Corps veteran and former NYPD officer James T. Ryder and others at the FealGood Foundation, John Feal has been tirelessly lobbying Congress to pass the James Zadroga bill, which would provide 10 years of care for about $7.4 billion.

Feal wants to remind everyone that the money doesn’t just cover cops and firefighters who worked at Ground Zero, but the countless members of the U.S. military who responded as well:

Reaching from one fighting hole to another to get the word out in the height of battle is not always easy. But somehow the call for help was heard loud and clear on 9/11. The Police Officers, Fire Fighters and other First Responders of New York City were rapidly and amply assisted by the New York National Guard.

Looking through the steam that was later identified as a silent killer of so many brave souls you could see the Men and Women in their military camouflage swapping buckets alongside us; breathing in the same crap and never letting it slow them down. They stayed determined, like the rest of us, to find maybe one trapped victim still alive. It was a proud moment for all of us. They were steadfast, strong and brave; as you’d expect from our Nation’s military.

What many New Yorkers and others from around this Country and around this World may not know is this help that the Feal Good Foundation offers is for them as much as it is for the Officers and the Fire Fighters. It’s for the English bobbies who directed traffic, the Alaskan Fire Jumpers who helped plot the bodies around Ground Zero. It’s for the good of all these people that the James Zadroga Health & Compensation bill is all about.

This bill, if passed will offer financial help to NY National Guard soldiers as much as it does for a NYC Fire Fighter, or a Demolition worker who worked at Ground Zero breathing in the many types of particles. We at the Feal Good Foundation hope everyone within ear shot knows this and repeats it to the next fighting hole.

We want everyone to know we are here for them!

-John Feal, founder of the FealGood Foundation

[John Feal, above, lobbies the Senate to pass the Zadroga bill. Photo Courtesy of the FealGood Foundation. To learn more, click here.]

UPDATE: President Obama signed the Zadroga Act into law today. Read about it here.